It's my birthday and Elaine sent me this Happy Birthday E-Card

http://www.hallmark.com/ECardWeb/ECV.jsp?a=0616352291829M180525137Y&product_id=

Math can make you feel like this:



Source: http://forum.ebaumsworld.com/showthread.php?t=112643&page=522

From The Times Reporter, about winter driving:

Tuscarawas County Sheriff Walt Wilson says it would take an extremely drastic weather event for him to declare a snow emergency level in the county. In Ohio, a sheriff may declare a snow emergency and temporarily close any township, county or state road within his jurisdiction for the preservation of public peace.

Wilson said Wednesday that past experience with the system has created a lot of issues and puts him or any sheriff in the middle of the employer and employees. On Tuesday, Wilson said, his department received many calls from people wanting him to declare a level. The calls included one, he added, from a woman who wanted him to give her written permission excusing her from work.

This is in regards to an adult. I have to remind people, the world of work is not the sheltered school environment.

http://www.timesreporter.com/index.php?ID=64288&r=1

Check out this frozen tidal wave from ebaumsworld.com

Inches of snow yesterday and last night. Good thing that I have an All Wheel Drive Vehicle. People think that I buy strange cars, but I want AWD cars. I may only need it a week or two a year, but for that week or two, I am glad that I have it. Yesterday, I drove to Canton and did my usual business and let me tell you, there is no way I would have been out without AWD. It was bad.

Today, schools are closed, Elaine and Aaron were still sleeping when I left the house. Below is a picture of an old log cabin in the woods on Route 800, not far from where we live.

From a vocational and career point of view, some fallout of raising the minimum wage.

New wage boost puts squeeze on teenage workers across Arizona
Employers are cutting back hours, laying off young staffers

Chad Graham
The Arizona Republic
Feb. 10, 2007 12:00 AM

Oh, for the days when Arizona's high school students could roll pizza dough, sweep up sticky floors in theaters or scoop ice cream without worrying about ballot initiatives affecting their earning power.

That's certainly not the case under the state's new minimum-wage law that went into effect last month.

Some Valley employers, especially those in the food industry, say payroll budgets have risen so much that they're cutting hours, instituting hiring freezes and laying off employees.

And teens are among the first workers to go.

Companies maintain the new wage was raised to $6.75 per hour from $5.15 per hour to help the breadwinners in working-poor families. Teens typically have other means of support.

Mark Messner, owner of Pepi's Pizza in south Phoenix, estimates he has employed more than 2,000 high school students since 1990. But he plans to lay off three teenage workers and decrease hours worked by others. Of his 25-person workforce, roughly 75 percent are in high school.

"I've had to go to some of my kids and say, 'Look, my payroll just increased 13 percent,' " he said. " 'Sorry, I don't have any hours for you.' "

Messner's monthly cost to train an employee has jumped from $440 to $580 as the turnover rate remains high.

"We go to great lengths to hang on to our high school workers, but there are a lot of kids who come in and get one check in their pocket and feel like they're living large and out the door they go," he said. "We never get our return on investment when that happens."

I have a new title for just about any minimum wage law now: The Well-Intentioned Unemployment Engendering Act. It seems to fit quite nicely.

http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/0210biz-teenwork0210.html

Snowy day today in Northeast Ohio. Schools are closed.

Trying real hard to stay away from political discussions. They can make you real depressed.

Here is the scuba video that Brian Alves and I discussed yesterday. This is the Key West Joe's Tug dive video.

By the way, here is my father's Pearl Harbor Memories Video. To date, almost 30,000 people have watched it in three months.

Was interviewed yesterday for The DV Show with Brian Alves. We talked about my scuba diving videos and my father's Pearl Harbor Memories video. It will be on The DV Show Podcast this week.

Brian is very nice and a Christian. In listening to his podcast, I could always tell there was something different about him. The DV Show website, podcast, videos, and live cast are certainly a platform that God can use.

www.thedvshow.com

Got a Ipod Video for Christmas. Really like it as I drive to appointments everday and there nothing on the radio. It is really nice when you can download your favorite podcasts and listen to them. Customizes the driving experience to a learning experience.

Ohio State versus Penn State today.

By the way, here is my newest dive video from Key West:

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-6463960296284954241&q=joe%27s+tug

Enjoy.

Stark State Workshop today. Probably talked, participated, too much, but there was alot of lecture and not much other methods. Was a Self-Help and Counseling Workshop. I know I am from the more self-help school as opposed to taking over for others.

Give a man a fish, you know.

It's been a while. Working hard today to help these people get jobs, challenges cases. Family going to my nephew's Bar Mitzvah this week.

Heard something interesting on Rush Limbaugh. A survey in Australia reported that among wealthy people, hard work was the number one key to success and among poor people, education was the number one key to success. Now I know why so many financially hurting clients come in and talk about wanting training or should have gone to or back to school.

Seems like some people's educational goal may be to short circuit the naturally occurring hard work, paying one's dues, proving ones self worthy process moving up the ladder process by hoping, with education, one can automatically enter in at a higher level and better paying position and not have to work one's way up.

It seems to be an immediate fix to the problem of a good job, but the problem may be that theknowledge comes, for the most part, without the wisdom gained through experience.

A referral from Workers Comp was said to have TRA/TAA training funding. I wanted to get this verified and he called an Unemployment Comp rep and was told that even though he was not on Unemployment Comp, he was eligible for training money. I called to verify this and asked for something in writing. Lo and behold, the rep called the client and said he did some further checking and client did not have a UC file, so was not eligible for the TRA/TAA training money. What a bummer.

However, it pays to ask government workers to confirm in writing what they are telling you.

A referral from a social service agency said, when her program time was up, that I did not find her a job. I tell people from day one, I am not going to find you a job, I will train you how to find your own job and I will help you, but don't count on me to find you a job. I tell people, I cannot guarantee you a job or your ideal job, there are only two certainties in this world, death and taxes. All I can tell you is that if you don't find a job, at the end of our alloted time, you will be unemployed.

Some people only hear and remember what they want to hear and remember.

Interesting puzzle helping people get jobs these days. So many people put their faith and stock in training programs. Does anyone know the number of people completing training who either don't get the job they want or don't have a job at all? Strange times. Under the right circumstances training can help, but it is not the magic bullet